Do the Forces Controlling Trump Need a Nuclear War in Korea?

19/04/2017

US Deploys Two More Aircraft Carriers Toward Korean Peninsula

According to a report by South Korea’s primary news outlet, Yonhap, the Pentagon has directed a total of three US aircraft carriers toward the Korean Peninsula, citing a South Korean government source.

Yonhap reports that in addition to the CVN-70 Carl Vinson, which is expected to arrive off the South Korean coast on April 25, the CVN-76 Ronald Reagan – currently in home port in Yokosuka, Japan – and the CVN-68 Nimitz carrier group – currently undergoing final pre-deployment assessment, Composite Training Unit Exercise off Oregon – will enter the Sea of Japan next week.

North Korean envoy at UN warns of nuclear war possibility

Only at a North Korean press conference at the United Nations, can you hear a diplomat say he hoped journalists had a good holiday weekend and then warn of possible thermonuclear war.

North Korea has consistently issued threats of war toward the United States in recent decades, but the Trump administration’s announced end of a “strategic patience” policy with Pyongyang has upped the ante in terms of warnings and bellicose rhetoric. North Korea’s UN deputy representative, Kim In Ryong, on Monday unleashed at a hastily called UN press conference a torrent of threats, war scenarios and rhetoric aimed at the United States.

Washington pushes world to brink of nuclear war

The repeated statements by US Vice President Mike Pence and other Trump administration officials Monday that the “era of strategic patience” with North Korea is over and “all options are on the table” have laid bare the mounting threat that Washington will provoke a war on the Korean peninsula involving the use of nuclear weapons and the deaths of millions.

China’s man on North Korea crisis cools heels in Beijing

The travels and travails of China’s veteran point man on North Korea underscore China’s growing frustration in its efforts to broker a negotiated solution to rising tensions between North Korea and the United States.

Wu Dawei, 70, spent an unusually long five days in Seoul last week. He met with presidential candidates as well as South Korea’s chief nuclear envoy, partly in a bid to ease tensions as a U.S. aircraft carrier group headed toward the region ahead of U.S. Vice President Mike’s Pence’s visit this week.

But Wu had not been able to confirm plans to visit North Korea, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted a diplomatic source as saying: “I understand the Chinese side is asking but the North is not replying.”

US Ex-Secretary of Defense Panetta: Trump is Risking Nuclear War

Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta warned Friday that the strong rhetoric coming from President Donald Trump’s administration toward North Korea could escalate tensions.

“The words from the administration are creating even higher volume in terms of the provocations that are going on. I think we have got to be careful here,” Panetta told NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell. “We should not engage in any precipitous action. There is a reason no U.S. president in recent history has pulled the trigger on North Korea.”